Because a pump isn’t an elective convenience some prefer over MDI, but an indicator that you’ve got such a bad case you need a prosthetic device to handle it, like I dunno dialysis or something.
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Exactly. On Thanksgiving I heard this again. It does sound kind of stupid when they compare it to me giving 6-8 shots a day. I don’t really have a good answer about why I don’t use a pump except that my A1c has run from 4.6 to 5.2 for the past 20 years with shots.
I would definitely encourage my child to use a pump if he ever needs one.
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I agree with everyone!!!
The one that is frustrating me the most at the moment is that my Primary Care Physician keeps insisting that everything is neuropathy. I pissed off my wrist muscles by doing a lot of stuff on a day when my pump infusion site wasn’t working well, so it’s the fast track to repetitive stress, which produced mild carpel tunnel for about 2 weeks. When I rested my wrist and took Advil to reduce the inflammation, the tingling mostly left. I’m still doing exercises for it, but neuropathy? I doubt it.
Or my toe got sqished in old shoes that are no longer keeping my feet from pushing outward as I walk. Squashed nerve? No, of course it’s neuropathy, because we can’t wait on that diagnosis until we see if new shoes and better orthotics will help. Clearly its neuropathy because I’m diabetic, and diabetics never just have hereditary foot issues caused by living for 59 years with one longer leg and a tendency to walk on the outer side of my feet. (These are foot issues that 2 of my 3 non-diabetic sisters, and 1 of my 3 non-diabetic brothers, have. Only 1 T1D out of 7 siblings … Lucky me! LOL)
And once neuropathy is in my record, everything else is “well, of course, since you already have neuropathy, this must be neuropathy, too.”
BLAH!!!
Happy Festivus everyone!
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My PCP years ago prescribed 2.5 mg Lisinopril which is an ACE inhibitor to protect my kidneys. I guess he had to put in my record for hypertension. I’ve historically have had low normal BP my whole life. I suspect that the PCP had to code hypertension to be able to prescribe the drug.
Fast forward to a pre op conversation with doctors - you have high blood pressure and that’s why you’re taking Lisinopril. The ultra low dose of 2.5mg has never affected my BP one iota. I said, “No it’s as a kidney protectant not hypertension.” They just couldn’t wrap their heads around it. Well, a surgeon and anesthesiologist, evidently don’t know much outside of their specialty.
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Grievance #1.) I’m not cool with dropping 20K every year on a condition I manage all on my own.
Grievance #2.) I’m angry that HIPPA never made health insurance policies truly portable across State lines. It limits my employment options not to be able to move without changing my policy.
Grievance #3.) I am frustrated that the medical monopolies are still allowed to exist and that no antitrust enforcement has taken place yet. The government is too slow and unable to provide any helpful regulation.
Grievance #4.) It makes me irritated when Medtronic takes credit for all the work done by freeware Loopers and the diabetic patient community. Its irritating that they took that work to profit from and never paid it forward in any way (by decreasing costs).
Grievance #5.) It’s annoying when companies/insurance lobbyists pretend to “advocate” for patients when they are really just advocating for themselves. I don’t think they should be able to use that word. Its gross.
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What everyone else posted (although I must say that I’ve been blessed to have wonderful doctors), but I want to add this:
How frustrating it is to deal with relatives who think they understand, yet do no recognize how much of an emergency it is when your bg has dropped into the 30s and they’re driving around trying to find the “perfect” restaurant. Or thinking that when a super low bg is treated you’re immediately “fine”…no longer tired and stressed the minute your bg gets back to normal. Thank God there are only a couple of people like this in my life, but after dealing with their refusal to understand, even when it’s been explained, patiently, over and over, I no longer spend much time with them.
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Not a relative, but I have a former boss who thought she understood everything I experience as a T1D because her cat had diabetes. I had a bite my tongue quite a bit with that one because I wanted to keep my job. She wasn’t a bad boss otherwise. 
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I have been told that I must have it “bad” because I have to take insulin.
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I hear that!!! I had a boss once who was into “positive thinking” to extremes. She kept telling me that if I thought positively, my diabetes would just “go away.” I was able to ignore her because I didn’t have to spend much time near her. I was, however, thrilled several years later when she got sued by a lady who had a metabolic problem and was very heavy. She considered it to be a hostile work environment, and won her case. Yaay!
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Oh yeah! I hurt my shoulder taking down an armed robbery suspect running towards where my partner and I were having lunch at an outdoor cafe. My partner went for the gun he tossed, and I turned myself into a human missile - aimed for the perp’s sternum - took him out. Fortunately, I didn’t need to be transported to the E.D. by ambo, my partner drove me. When the assumption was frozen shoulder - due to my “poor T1D mgt” my partner lost it! It’s similar to when a T1D person has a bad day - doesn’t everybody - and it is ascribed to bg must be low/high.
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I like to explain that a person has to demonstrate knowledge and practices of good T1D mgt before they can even think of getting a pump. I tell “them” that my pump is physical evidence of a good brain
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Too many medical professionals think they know everything about everything. People with any type of diabetes that are compliant tend to know more than ER docs and nurses, surgeons, gas passers (forgot how to spell it) and gastroenterologists.
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My complaint is that I need to explain it to medical staff this is something they should already understand
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I can’t resist that one, Brianna. We had a diabetic cat some years ago. We joked around about how–see? I didn’t inherit the diabetes gene from my Dad–I caught it by snuggling with my cat. Misinformation gets inhaled by the willing, it would seem!
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T1D for 40+ years here and one of my pugs was Dx’d with T1D. Oh heavens! No! Did I give it to her?
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Todays diabetes grievance is a big one. It occurs to me that it took us ten years to build a federal antitrust case against the nations largest insurers. That was no joke.
But, then, the Docs, who are already getting paid off by the whole corrupt system and have never exercised enough professional integrity or agency to prevent the insurers from ■■■■■■■ the entire system up, are sitting their winy asses on Reddit, bitching about the terrible circumstances that they, themselves, helped create.
Then, some disenfranchised patient comes along, reads what those morons wrote, takes it for gospel, and shoots what could have been a very valuable Federal witness dead.
I’m gonna let this one pass and assume it was an accident. They are lucky that we have a long line of UHG employees on the hook for federal crimes that we can flip so they avoid jail time.
They get ONE pass on this. If one more potential federal witness ends up dead, I declare war on the Docs.
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She was “lucky” to have a human-momma with T1D. I used a Libre sensor, made graphs showing the action times/life of NpH (and Vetsulin) since that is what I could get for her. Tracked her bg’s so we could at least get the timing right. If she were bigger, I would have used a Libre and a pump on her for basal bolus regimen.
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